The Final Mayoral Debate: Live Coverage
Stay tuned tonight as we provide live coverage of the final mayoral debate tonight at 7 p.m., just as the polls close for early voting. Don’t forget: Election day is this Saturday, December 12. Final Houston Mayoral Debate…
Eat Me Daily Names Robb Walsh’s Sex, Death and Oysters One of 2009’s Best Cookbooks
Our own Robb Walsh has never been shy. For readers who haven’t noticed, he’s always happy to point out why he likes oysters so much. As he wrote in the pages of the Houston Press a few years ago: “The wonderfully slick texture, delicate briny flavor and beachfront aroma make…
Help Us Eat Our Words
Eating Our Words is looking to expand our coverage of holiday fare. Who among you makes a kick-ass Kwanzaa spread? Who wants to share Grandma’s — or your own — recipes for Hanukkah treats? Who makes an awesome ethnic meal instead of the usual turkey and dressing? We want to…
Double-Fisted Breakfast
Sometimes nothing nips a hangover in the butt like a Bloody Mary and some greasy eggs. On Saturdays and Sundays, Maria Selma on Richmond serves up some tasty egg combinations, and it has a full bar. I have been to Maria’s plenty of times for some potent margaritas and awesome…
TSU Not So Happy With Being Put Back On Probation
Texas Southern University, for years the never-ending fount of Bad News, rightly trumpeted word this summer when they were taken off probation by the agency that accredits them. (All right, you insist on the name of that group? The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School…
What Rocks Off Found When We Hacked Tiger Woods’ iPod
Since Rocks Off kindly suggested several musicians who would perhaps have made better trysting partners for Tiger Woods than waitresses, porn stars and what have you, the number of the maritally embattled golf superstar’s alleged paramours has risen from nine to 11. Whoops, it’s gone up from 11 to 13…
Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Beyond Beltway 8: Although he shut down his previous food blog, Cory…
Want Your Nuts Cracked?
In junior high school gym class, the eighth grade bullies asked that innocent question just before they kneed the seventh graders in the groin. I still cringe when I hear the phrase. But at Canino’s produce market on Airline, it’s a pretty attractive offer. I’ve been out gathering a few…
Some Holiday Help For The Godless, On I-45
Photo by Chris VogelBillboard along FM 1960Houston can be a lonely place for an infidel, what with all the mega-churches and deep-rooted southern Sunday tradition. Even more so at Christmas, when it all gets ramped up a notch with as many commercial reminders of Jesus’ (alleged) birthday at the mall…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: More on California Honky-Tonk Zelig Larry Hosford
We’ve just listened to his duet with Larry Hosford on “Reno Is a Late Night Town,” and Mike Stinson looks up and grins like he’s just heard Dwight Yoakam is going to cut another one of his songs. “Larry sort of fathered a little creative scene that went on in…
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Seabrook: The Pictures
Lots of smoke and noise down near Seabrook this morning. Luckily no one was hurt, but the blast at the American Acryl chemical plant made for some dramatic pictures (note the helicopter getting close up above). Click here for our slideshow.If you’ve got some of your own, send them to…
The 10 Best Places to Eat in Westchase
Unlike neighboring Memorial, the Westchase district of Houston — which runs roughly down the spine of Westheimer from Gessner to Dairy Ashford — is brimming with some of the city’s best and (happily) least expensive ethnic restaurants. Although you could eat at a place like J. Alexander’s or Le Peep…
7 Days of Giftmas: Baby Things
Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. Ahh, the joy of parenthood. New parents have enough to think about without having to worry about Christmas. Lucky for you, Hair Balls has found a few…
Listology: The American Heist Soundtracks Their Funerals
Of all the bands to emerge out of the Houston music puppy mill this year, none has been as steadfastly working class and punk rock as the American Heist. Rocks Off first spied the band opening up for Florida’s Fake Problems in May. At the time they were still called…
How to Make the Perfect: Mulled Wine
One of our favorite ways to warm up over the holidays is with mulled wine. It may sound terrible, but trust us. This drink is dangerously addictive and so easy to make. Your only problem will be having enough. Mulled wine is similar to warm sangria without the fruity sweetness…
Spirit of Season Moves East Texas Robber
Ah Christmas, the time of year when even bank robbers find themselves in the spirit of giving… According to the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, 21-year-old Bryon Jacovin Garrett strode into the Wal-Mart branch of the Commercial Bank of Texas on Tuesday morning and handed the teller a note demanding cash. The…
Dat Boi T: A Screwed Up Love Story
Screw Love. It’s a term commonly used amongst the Screwed Up Click (S.U.C.), the bigger-than-life Houston-based rap label, which was founded by the legendary DJ Screw himself. If Houston hip-hop is the Bible, Screw is the book of Genesis. There are two types of Screw Love. There’s Love for Screw,…
Health Department Roundup: Now It’s Personal Edition
The Health Department inspection search website is generally (and thankfully) populated by one star hotel food prep areas, shady gas stations and restaurant names I don’t recognize. The occasional gem or curiosity will pop up, but this week the inspectors proved a menacing force, telling me things I really don’t…
Game Time: Jose Valverde’s Decision — Dumb For Him, Great For The Astros
On our show sometimes, we’ll get things given to us by the local teams or maybe a sponsor for us to give away to listeners. You know the kind of stuff I’m talking about. The occasional Wild Wing Cafe $25 gift card, perhaps a Borat DVD, or on an especially…
Why That Locke Supporter Is Absolutely Correct About The Horrors Of Gayness
Lucky Houstonians got a real treat yesterday in the form of a postcard from one Dave Wilson, which offered helpful advice about the coming mayoral run-off. This isn’t the anti-gay Wilson’s first rodeo, as he sent out another mailer last month, treating us to the alarming image of mayoral candidate…
Our Five Favorite Heavy Metal Christmas Carols
Every year the Christmas gods try to throw us the same old boring and tired holiday music. Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Hall & Oates are just fine, but this member of Rocks Off needs the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords under his dead, decaying…
Catfish and Grits
While researching this week’s review of Cedar Creek Café, I tried the restaurant’s extensive breakfast menu. The Southern-style “biscuits Benedict” featuring poached eggs and fresh hot biscuits were an interesting spin on morning food. But my favorite breakfast was the fried catfish and cheese grits…
HISD Head Says CEP Will Grant Contract Extension, Giving Him Time To Study Whether To Renew It
Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier told Hair Balls today that he has a verbal agreement from the leaders of Community Education Partners that they will extend their contract renewal deadline until March 1, 2010.Grier wants a more thorough review of CEP, the private firm that operates two alternative schools in…
Artist of the Week: Indie-Rock Video-Game Savants Days Drive – Russians Love ‘Em!
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. If we may be candid for a second,…
Big Boom In Seabrook, No Injuries Reported
There was a big, loud boom and plenty of smoke near Seabrook this morning, but it appears so far that there are no serious injuries attached to an explosion at a chemical plant.Shelter-in-place warnings are in effect near the American Acryl plant, which is not extremely close, as these things…
No Justice, No Kubiak
Gary Kubiak is a nice guy. I’ll stipulate to that. He works hard. I’ll stipulate to that. Bob McNair likes him. I’ll stipulate to that. But that Gary Kubiak deserves to keep his job because of that? That I won’t stipulate to.But according to the Houston Chronicle’s Richard Justice, Kubiak…
Chef Chat: Lisa Hedrick
We caught the ever-busy Lisa Hedrick of Hedrick Gourmet Group for a quick chat about which catering options are hitting it big this season. With the economy strapped, Lisa wanted to talk about how to make your dollar stretch and still have a good time. Eating Our Words: You’ve been…
A Reprieve For What Counts As A Historic Houston Building
It’s news!! A historic Houston building will not be torn down Yet, at least!!Harris County Commissioners Court voted yesterday to belay the wrecking ball on the Hogan-AllnochDry Goods Building, which was likely to be torn down to make space for a Minute Maid Park parking garage.Of course, this is Houston…
Aftermath: Jay Reatard Keeps It In His Pants at Walter’s
Apparently Aftermath is on the “golden showers” beat. We’ve been sent, so far, to cover R. Kelly and Tuesday night, Jay Reatard. Though Reatard hit the popular consciousness in 2008 with his collections of singles, Aftermath didn’t really know much about him until earlier this year. The singer made music…
Cecil’s Strawberry Kamikaze
“You happy with those?” a twentysomething stranger says, aiming an inebriated finger at the two shots sitting on the bar in front of me at Cecil’s Tavern (600 W. Gray, 713-524-3691). The Strawberry Kamikazes, which were a lovely shade of rose, had come recommended by the bartender. “Sure,” I replied…
In Wishing Ronnie James Dio a Speedy Recovery, Our Life as a “Holy Diver”
Metal legend Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians you’ve probably always been aware of, even if you haven’t counted yourself a huge fan. Rocks Off can sympathize, for while we’ve personally gone out of our way to seek his music, we’ve always taken it for granted that Dio…
I Wanna Be Your Dog (Or Cat): Hail Satan!!
On Friday, Jews all over the world will light the first of eight nights’ worth of candles in honor of Hanukkah, a holiday no one (including The Chosen People) knows how to spell. Two weeks later, the goyim will whoop it up over the birth of God’s son in a stinky…
City’s Report On HFD Allegations Isn’t The Last Word
At a press conference earlier today, the City of Houston announced that an investigation — conducted by lawyers hired by the city — was complete and the law firms were ready with suggestions on how to improve the fire department. If anyone has forgotten, it was a tough 2009 for…
Sunday Brunch at The Rockwood Room
As mentioned in our last Openings & Closings roundup, the much-anticipated venture from Michael Dei Maggi (formerly of Max’s Wine Dive) and Robert Hall III (of the Robert Hall Winery) — The Rockwood Room — has finally opened at 5709 Woodway Drive. We heard good things from friends who had…
We Don’t Need Another Hero, If They’re Going To Be Like This Guy
Houston, we have a Hero in our midst. He, like most heroes, is disarmingly modest about his Death-Defying Exploits.But despite his best efforts, he has become nationally known.Tedd Petruna is, according to Talking Points Memo, a diver for NASA here in Houston. He also saved an AirTrans jet from certain…
Murder By The Book Gets Some National Pub
Murder by the Book is a Houston institution, pretty much the place to go for mystery authors on book tours.The Bissonnet store got some national publicity today, as The New York Times looked at plucky independent booksellers importing a hot new novel from England before its U.S. publication date.The Girl…
My First Bun Bo Hue
It was almost closing time at Kim Chau, the aging and eccentric Vietnamese restaurant on Longpoint near Antoine. Kim Chau’s dreary dining room, with its black-and-white checkerboard tile floor and tables covered with cobalt-blue vinyl tablecloths, glowed weirdly in the fluorescent light through the steamy front window. Kim Chau is…
Beetle’s Paul Beebe and Other Local Musicians Remember John Lennon
Today is one of the most dubious anniversaries in all of rock and roll. Twenty-nine years ago this evening, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon on the front steps of Lennon’s apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York City, the Dakota. For Baby Boomers and…
Holiday Beers
If holiday cocktails aren’t your game, there are plenty of brewers suggesting you wish Jesus a happy birthday with their own drinks this month, and Block 7 Wine Company, 720 Shepherd, was happy to get folks started last weekend with a holiday beer tasting. We found it well worth the…
La Carafe’s Planned Beer Garden Stymied By City Hall Snags
About three months ago, we reported exciting news for downtown drinkers who also liked to light up. La Carafe was planning to expand into the vacant lot next door. The addition was to be in the form of a beer (and wine) garden.Back in 2008’s Best of Houston issue, we…
Brisa Cocina’s Salchi-Burger
I had a salchi-burger at Brisa Cocina Mexicana on San Felipe yesterday. What a lovely example of restaurant fare inspired by street food. The hamburger was topped with a thin slice of ham, jalapeño sausage slices, and melted cheese, and served on a toasted bun spread with refried beans and…
KISS Online Takes the Pruning Shears to Rocks Off’s Already-Favorable Review
Rocks Off welcomes any artists’ opinion of our critiques of their work, be it one of our more shining reviews or the instances where we pull up out the six-shooters and make them dance for their musical sins. But it’s when you take our entire review, sanitize it for you…
Win A Free Public Enemies DVD; Check Out Five Other “Enemy” Movies
Johnny Depp is the “sexiest man alive.” I know this because it’s what I’ve been told by People magazine, my wife, all my wife’s friends, my sister, and that girl I dated in college who used to make me watch 21 Jump Street before she’d allow me to get her…
Griswold Holiday Gift Guide
Many Americans may be expecting a lump of coal in their hanging folders at work instead of holiday bonuses, but if Clark Griswold has taught us anything, it’s that an undying devotion to holiday spirit can get you through the most well-earned of psychotic breakdowns. While Clark understandably wasn’t thrilled…
Santa Claus Is Coming to To Sink the USS Arizona…
Last night was a first in the history of what founder/director Bryan Taylor believes is the ten-year history of the Santa Claus Reenactment of the Battle of Pearl Harbor. Thanks to the mucky mire that was Market Square last night, the mock aerial/naval combat took place inside of Warren’s. Watch…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Second Act of Onetime “New Dylan” Larry Hosford
Unless you’re a professional Trivial Pursuit player, chances are high you’ve never heard of Larry Hosford. But there was a time when Hosford was hailed as the next Bob Dylan and was hanging around Shelter Records with the likes of George Harrison, Leon Russell and J.J. Cale. Lonesome, Onry and…
The Shameless Chef: Tex Mex Ramen Explosion
Ah, the hazy, crazy days of dorm life. I stayed in the dorms at the University of Houston for two-and-a-half years, had some great times, and gained about 50 pounds. Oh, don’t get me wrong; U of H went to great lengths to make sure healthy options were available to…
Dueling LULAC Press Conferences Over CEP, HISD’s Alternative School For Troubled Students
It was one of those great, if little noticed moments in Houston history, as separate local chapters of LULAC (The League of United Latin American Citizens) – as usual belying the “united” part of their name – battled it out in the front foyer of the Houston ISD administration building…
Inquiring Minds: Garage-Rock Fireman and Kiwi-Punk Buff Jay Reatard
Tonight Jay Reatard plugs in at Walter’s On Washington, playing the first of three Texas dates before ending his fall tour behind August’s Watch Me Fall release. On New Year’s Eve, he opens up for Austin’s Spoon in Milwaukee. Memphis’ Reatard, born Jimmy Lee Lindsey, has been a polarizing force…
Shoulda Stayed Away: The 10 Worst Comebacks Of The Decade
The Oughts, or whatever the hell people are going to call them (The Hell Years?) Are quickly drawing to a close; meaning it is a time to reflect on the 10 years that we’ve endured.Hair Balls and our sister blogs, Rocks Off and Eating…Our Words, will be putting together various…
Bartender Chat – Kahlia of Bubba’s
You wouldn’t tell by looking at calm Kahlia that football season is the busiest time of the year at Bubba’s Sports Bar & Grill (6225 Washington Ave). Bubba’s is the official UH football bar, after all. You may even run into the 610 AM sports guys doing their radio show…
Game Time: Longhorns, All I Ask Is That You Take Your Ass-Kicking Like Men
First and foremost, I want to congratulate the University of Texas football team, their fans, their alumni. Regardless of how it got done, on Saturday night you scored 13 points, Nebraska scored 12, and by virtue of 13 being greater than 12, you now find yourselves making reservations for Pasadena…
Ask a Rapper: Hollywood F.L.O.S.S. Has Some Internet Questions For Us
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted…
Bolillo’s Campechanas
As my friend Barry Popik explains, the word “campechanas” first entered the Texas food lexicon in the 1930s as the name for the flaky Mexican pastries that crumble into sweet flakes when you bite them. The glazed rectangles are similar in texture to the French “elephant ears.” The pastries are…
9 Musicians Tiger Woods Should Have Cheated With Instead of the Women He Did
When initial word of millionaire golfer Tiger Woods’ car accident in front of his home hit the news wires and Twitter the morning of November 27, the world waited with bated breath. None of us quite knew what his condition was or how extensive his injuries were. In a year…
Coogs Basketball’s Three-Headed Monster, And How They Had To Go To Alaska To Play Oklahoma
Photo courtesy UHLost amidst the anxiety over the Houston Cougar football team and possible bowl game scenarios, the men’s basketball team took to the court at Hofheinz Pavilion on Sunday afternoon and engaged the Texas A&M-Corpus Christ Islanders in a fast-paced game that saw the Cougars emerge with the 83-76…
The Eggs at The Egg and I
The Egg and I was recently covered as a top ten place to eat in Memorial, but we had a different experience with the one at 557 Bay Area Blvd. When a business goes as far as to use the word “egg” in its name, we expect and egg-ceptional experience…
8 Days of Giftmas: Manly Things
Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. Yesterday we gave you some ideas for lovely lady gifts so today we’re going to turn our attention towards the menfolk. And we’re going to start with…
Aftermath: The First Lost In Space Festival at Khon’s
Suffice to say, it’s been a great year for live music festivals in Houston this year. Between the Spring and Fall editions of the Westheimer Block Party, the Free Press Summer Fest, the International Festival, our own Houston Press Music Awards and others that slip our memories at the moment,…
How Much Are Taxpayers Spending For Trite Analysis? No One’s Saying
If there’s one thing Gerry Fusco, the interim bureau chief for the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, loves, it’s hiring consultants. If there’s one thing he and BARC spokeswoman Elena Marks don’t love, it’s telling the public how much taxpayer money is going to those consultants — and just…
Where Are We Drinking?
Pretty maids all in a row. If you can’t guess the bar just by the beers, what kind of barfly are you? Take your best shot in the comments section below…
Distant Early Warning: Al Di Meola, David Gray, Los Lonely Boys, Mike Doughty, Theory of a Deadman, Willie Nelson, etc.
Al Di Meola: Sat., Feb. 13. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Celtic Woman: Fri., April 30. Toyota Center. Citizen Cope: Sat., March 13. House of Blues. Cowboy Mouth: Tue., Feb. 16. House of Blues. David Gray: Thu., March 11. Verizon Wireless Theater. Dexter Romweber, Exene Cervenka: Wed., Jan. 27. The Bronze…
Pop Rocks: Long Live The BCS
By the slimmest of margins, America was spared the unthinkable horror of seeing a (*shudder*) mid-major team contend for a national championship last Saturday. And if you don’t think there were some urgent calls made from the executive office of the BCS to the replay booth in Jerry’s World (Cowboys…
Lawyer Files Suit Against All Those Homeless People Near His Office
Clients at the Beacon, a downtown day center for the homeless, received a strange visit during this afternoon’s free lunch: attorney Andy Vickery, who held a press conference to announce that he and other lawyers will be representing both them and the Beacon.Christ Church Cathedral, which runs the Beacon, was…
Houston: From Moron Metropolis to Genius City In Two Short Months
Two months ago, the Daily Beast ranked all American cities according to their estimation of each place’s municipal IQ.They measured how many residents had bachelor’s and graduate degrees, nonfiction book sales, the ration of institutions of higher education, and political engagement, as measured the percentage of eligible voters who cast…
The Agony of the Cobnoggins
Overconsumption of roasted corn, or elote con crema, is believed to be responsible for a disformity of the cranium known as cornhead. The condition, which is mainly confined to the cornbelt state of Nebraska, can also cause delusions that lead the afflicted to believe they can beat the Texas Longhorns…
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Houston is predicted to have a much wetter and colder winter this year thanks to a fading El Niño pattern. And if anything was proven by last week’s snowstorm, it’s that it may very well be possible for Houston to have a white Christmas in a few weeks. While we…
UK Web Site Shines “Unsigned Spotlight” on Houston’s Watermarks
When Rocks Off wrote about Houston electro-rockers the Watermarks’ Thoughts Like Bombs back in May, we said a song or two off the quintet’s five-song EP – still available as a free download on the band’s Web site – reminded us of SXSW ’10 visitors (trust us) Black Rebel Motorcycle…
Bye-Bye, Borders (On The West Side)
It’s been talked about for some months, but now there is an official date: The Borders at Westheimer and Gessner will be closing January 16.Three other Borders have been announced as on the endangered list — locations in Willowbrook Mall, the Houston Center and Northwest Mall — but the Gessner…
Do You Know What Your Kids Are Eating? Be Careful — It Might Look Like This
While some schools around town go to great lengths to provide healthy options for students, most cafeterias reside outside the bounds of culinary decency: processed meats, stale breads, cups of colorless fruit. It’s not that anyone wants our fine city’s future to dine on lard and green turkey dogs; it’s…
Holiday Cocktails
The owners of a respected Vermont restaurant and wine bar visited T’afia last weekend to hold a holiday cocktail camp benefiting local charity Live It Big. Sommelier Deirdre Heekin talked guests through the history of many of the spirits they sampled as chef Caleb Barber prepared each drink. The pair…
Happy Birthday to the Would-Be Bard of “Fannin Street,” Tom Waits
Rocks Off would like to wish happy birthday to that hero of barflies, beatniks and gravel-garglers everywhere, Tom Waits. Waits turns the big 6-0 today, and released Glitter and Doom, a live account of the Southern U.S. tour that brought him to Jones Hall in June of last year, a…
Seven Social Media Snafus to Avoid for Sensible Online Citizenship
If you drag your lovely slacker self from bed on the daily with your eyes at least partially open and your brain at least marginally alert (assuming a lot here, we know), then even the groggiest version of you can identify one of what techie legionnaires call an “online community.”…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: Concluding Our African-American Country Series With O.B. McClinton
One other Charley Pride contemporary who cut a wide swath through country music in the ’70s and ’80s was Mississippian O. B. McClinton.. After failing to break into R&B, although several of his songs were cut by other artists, McClinton hit the Billboard country charts twice in 1972 with “Six…
Fruitcake: Doorstop or Delicacy?
If somebody gives you a fruitcake for Christmas, do you use it as a doorstop or save it until next year and re-gift it to someone you don’t like? Ever heard the ingredients compared to the population of California? Such are the usual jokes involving the dreaded, fruit-and-nut-studded holiday dessert…
Game Time: “Oh My God….He’s Gonna Throw It…..NOOOOOOO!!!!”
“That’s the thing about defining moments — when they define you as really, really good or really, really bad, you pretty much know them the minute they occur; when the jury is still out on whether you’re good or bad, ultimately you have to go back and find the defining…
Getting “Passed” Up OK with Houston’s Latino Rappers… Well, Not Really
There’s no doubt that Corporate America knows how to enter a market, break down consumer attitudes and needs, and sell them a product they’re going to buy. Pepsi’s been around for a minute so you know they know what’s up. But in an effort to sell the urban community more…
Odd Pair: Jalapeño Chips
We’re not Riesling fans. The super sweet white wine tastes more like liquid candy than an alcoholic beverage. So, when Sally Swiss at Whole Foods recommended the Rudolph Miller German Riesling to pair with our sacred Zapp’s jalapeño chips, we cringed in fear. How could we eat something so delicious…
It’s A Joyful Gun-Shop Christmas In Beaumont
The ultimate Texas Christmas song comes to us from JJ’s Pawn in Beaumont (hat tip to the Bayou blog).It’s not the sterling production values that make this a winner, it’s the True Spirit of Christmas that shines through as the sales staff, standing in front of what seems like a…
Flashback: Aaron Neville at House of Blues
Any night Aaron Neville is in town during the holiday season is one “O Holy Night” indeed. The New Orleans-born crooner and his band, featuring saxophone-tooting brother Charles, brought their Christmas set to House of Blues Friday night, warming the audience’s heart better than all but the stiffest batch of…
Shells and Cheese at The Oceanaire Seafood Room
Gourmet macaroni and cheese is an idea that sounds great in theory but never really seems to pan out. The problem is that these dishes are generally overdone – too much and too sharp of cheese, with so many extras you’re not sure what you’re eating anymore. The Oceanaire Seafood…
9 Days of Giftmas: Ladylike Things
Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. Hair Balls doesn’t want to perpetuate staid gender roles or anything, but sometimes you have to shop for someone a little more traditional, you know. Or maybe…
Turning the Screw: Killa Kyleon, Destiny’s Child, New Boyz, Lil’ Flip, Devin, Trae, Cham, Freddy Gibbs, Weezy, Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Rihanna, etc.
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: “H-Town State of Mind,” Killa Kyleon Killa is so, so, so good at flipping at other people’s songs. Wire…
Porkfat Candy: Colombian Cracklins
Colombian-style chicharonnes, served with a chewy corn disk called an arepa and a squeeze of lime, make a nice late-morning breakfast with a cup of coffee. It’s sort of a Latino fried bacon plate. That’s what I ordered Sunday around noon at Leña Verde, the Colombian “taberna” in the same…
Longhorns Join The Undeserved-Victory Hall Of Fame
The UT Longhorns will be playing in the BCS title game, thanks to a thoroughly undeserved win against Nebraska for the Big 12 championship, such as it is.How badly did the Horns play? Against a completely mediocre Cornhusker team, the vaunted Horns offense was utterly stymied. QB Colt McCoy threw…
Where the Kids Hang
Chicago’s Pizza was our choice one night for some deep-dish madness. The location we tried was closed, and the sign mentioned the two Chicago’s restaurants had been consolidated. Both menus were on offer at the 1777 Airline Drive location. We arrived and noticed it felt very snug — most of…
RodeoHouston Announces Dierks Bentley, Rascal Flatts and Gary Allan Dates Next March
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced three more performers for its 2010 concert series Monday morning, joining the previously announced Jonas Brothers (March 7), Tim McGraw (March 8), Brad Paisley (March 11) and Brooks & Dunn (March 20) dates. The performers announced Monday morning are Dierks Bentley (March 3),…
This Week In TV: Horrible, Horrible People
I’m recovered from the snow, I’m trying to convince people that “Dick in a Box” qualifies as Christmas music, and I’ve got a hole in my heart from eating batteries. This was the week in TV Land: • 30 Rock was cute this week, though the bit about Frank turning…
Aftermath: KISS, Hotter Than Hell and Strutting Like Dinosaurs In Houston Rock City
KISS is a depleting natural and cultural resource. One day there will be no KISS left, and all the world will have is four garish black and silver suits sitting in some futuristic Smithsonian display. We have had KISS on this Earth for almost 40 years, and many people have…
Where Are We Eating?
Octopus, lobster and prawns — oh my! The seafood presentation at this Houston restaurant is so fresh you can almost smell the ocean. Does it look familiar to you? Do you know where we’re eating this week? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
Texas Traveler: Sri Meenakshi Temple
Texas Traveler has a friend who used to lived in a trailer in an empty field near Pearland. On their way to his house once he surprised her by driving her by the Sri Meenakshi Temple. Maybe you already know about this place and maybe you don’t, but suffice it…
Eyeballin: Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! – the Rolling Stones In All Their Late-’60s Satanic Majesty
In late 1969, the Rolling Stones were at a musical crossroads. They were two years away from the deep blues of Sticky Fingers and its follow-up, the majestically scuzzy Exile On Main Street. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still very much tinkering with their new bluesier direction that would…
One More Visit To The Armed Forces Bowl For The Oh-So-Close Coogs
Fifty-two seconds remaining on the clock and Cougar ball on the East Carolina 32-yard line. The Cougars were down by six points, but they were driving. ECU had just been penalized, again, for an illegal substitution. It was just going to be like so many other Cougars games this season…
Win A Free Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince DVD By Answering A Few Not-So-Simple Questions
As the release of the sixth Harry Potter DVD — Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince — comes closer, it seems like the perfect time to review your Harry Potter knowledge.Sure, you know the name of Ron’s pet rat and his true identity, but are you a true Potter aficionado?…
Tune In and Turn On
If you missed Robb Walsh’s two-part apperance on The Michael Berry Show back in October, you have another chance to catch our newly un-anonymous food critic this weekend as he appears on Southbound Food on 1560 AM. The radio show — which is anchored by Sports Animal hosts Lance Zierlein,…
Listology: War Master’s Dream Metal Festival
This weekend, Houston becomes the grindcore and death-metal capitol of the country for two days with Houston Noisefest 2009, starting tonight at the Atomic Café and concluding tomorrow night at the White Swan. Bands from California, Ohio and as far as Washington State are heading down here to round out…
Houstonian Displays Roots Of Her Heart
Gels, nails, wire, gold leaf, chalk pastel, glass beads and oil on wood are just some of the things you’ll see incorporated in local artist Lizbeth Ortiz’s art work in her solo exhibition “Raíces de mi Corazón,” (“Roots of my Heart” in English) that opened last night at Talento Bilingüe…
This Week In Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where today’s snowfall has got us breaking out the 55-gallon drum of chicken soup. We started the week off with Greenway Barista’s daring proclamation of the best cafe in Texas, and Robb Walsh discovering that the new Kim Son…
Food Fight: Battle Ceviche
In keeping with our recent trend of expanding the weekly food fights to encompass more than just burgers and donuts, this week’s battle pitted two restaurants against one another to see who could craft the finest fish dish. Ceviche is made differently from country to country. Although originally from Peru…
Game Time: The Week In Tweets
Maybe I’m biased because I use it all the time, but I’m going to make the bold statement that Twitter has surpassed “fad” status and that it’s here to stay. Even at this point, people who don’t use Twitter recognize kinda sorta how it works, and even recognize a Tweet…
Al Marcus Makes Andouille
The Daily Cleveland Herald, in 1869, quoted lawyer-poet John Godfrey Saxe as saying: “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion, as we know how they are made.” In other words, both are nasty processes best left to others. Cue Al Marcus. Marcus, under the company name The Grateful…
The Great Unmasking and Other Embarrassing Moments in KISS History
The Knights In Satan’s Service are back, and they’ll be rocking the Toyota Center Saturday night as ably as a couple of 50-somethings lumbering around on platform boots can reasonably be expected to. There will be blood, as Paul Thomas Anderson might say, and flames, and a couple of guys…
Yummy Water Beetle Essence
Thai mang da, known in Vietnamese as ca cuong, is available in the U.S. in the form of an artificial extract. It has a pleasant floral aroma with a slightly funky background scent. It is an essential flavor in North Vietnamese cuisine. Former residents of Hanoi put a drop of…
It’s Really Snowing Down Near La Porte, And By “Snowing” We Mean Cocaine
As if there weren’t enough snow coming down today, cops found over a million dollars’ worth of it near La Porte.A Harris County deputy sheriff was on patrol with his drug-sniffing dog this morning when he “stopped the driver of a 2001 Honda Odyssey in the 10300 block of Fairmont…
Little Debbie Is Here
We are suckers for free cupcakes. We will even brave Houston streets in the middle of a snow storm for them. Yes, we are putting our lives at risk, but it’s all in the name of chocolate. Seven weeks ago, Little Debbie launched a 10-week “Share-a-thon” campaign to promote its…
Houston’s Indian Hip-Hop Community Has Plenty of “Swagger”
The story of how a hip-hop video gets made, or comes to fruition, usually doesn’t resemble the melodramatic storyline of a Bollywood flick, but Lil Flip’s new video, “Swagger” – featuring Houston-born Indian-music artist Bobby Moon – exudes a bit of the drama of subcontinental cinema. Let us set the…
‘Tis the Season to Put Your Foot Down (Tra La La La La)
Tap, tap, tippety tap (excuse us, that’s you, signing into your email; ’twasn’t an activity in which you were engaged in your dreams last night). “Yippee skippy, an Evite! For a holiday potluck with my triathlon training team! Next Thursday? ‘Course I’ll be there with bells on!” You’re so, so…
Happy Hour Scene: Marfreless
We almost expected the blue door at Marfreless to be locked when we walked up. There was still a hint of daylight outside. Any bar that asks you, with a friendly reminder printed on the menu, to leave on your clothes is strictly a late-night place. And that’s what it’s…
Inquiring Minds: Simon Balthazar of UK Indie-Pop Tarts Fanfarlo
Reservoir, the debut album from London’s Fanfarlo, is the kind of album that immediately grabs your attention with its unique and joyful spirit. From the stumbling, heartfelt swoon of songs like “I Am a Pilot” to the droll and upbeat wit of songs like “Harold T. Wilkins, Or How To…
Hand Making Coffee at Home
With the holidays coming up and family and friends coming home and visiting, it’s time to pull out your old coffee maker. Or is it? There are some great ways to coffee by hand-brewing it with different devices. The apparatus you choose can alter the way even a single-origin coffee…
In Honor Of Today’s Weather: Five Best Snow Movies
Hair Balls was so excited for today’s predicted snowfall that we could barely sleep last night. Fortunately, a half-bottle of cheap gas-station gin and a bunch of Benadryl cured that little problem.The cozy concoction gave us a dream populated with characters and scenes from movies where snow played a prominent…
A Few Chill Artists for Your Wintry Commute This Afternoon
If there’s anything that makes Houstonians freak the fuck out worse than an oncoming hurricane, it’s the threat of winter weather. Rocks Off was in our local grocery store Thursday night (we simply had to have that new Rolling Stone with Taylor Lautner on the cover) and the checkout line…
Five Spot: The First Annual Pimp C Hip-Hop Health and Wellness Fair
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It’s five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Today marks the two-year anniversary of Pimp C’s death. Quick aside: We first…
Boating on Buffalo Bayou
Buffalo Bayou Partnership is promoting its boat tours — tying them into the Christmas season — as part of its continuing effort to try to get Houston residents out of their cars and down to the bayou to see what all the clean-up has achieved. So Thursday, after two prior…
Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful
…but your photos are — pardon the holiday cheer — delightful. So keep sending in those wintery pictures to the Houston Press Flickr pool and let it snow! For more information on any of the photos, including location and photographer, simply click on them…
Inquiring Minds: Talking Christmas Music With Aaron Neville
Even for a stone-cold atheist (which Rocks Off is not), listening to Aaron Neville sing “O Holy Night” has to be one of the true pleasures of the Western world. The best-known voice of New Orleans’ No. 1 soul-funk family dynasty thanks to songs like “Tell It Like It Is”…
New HISD Superintendent May Be Ready to Cancel CEP Contract – UPDATED
Note: This story has been updated to make clear that Dr. Terry Grier wants to investigate CEP further, not that he is calling right now for its contract with HISD to be canceled. If you read past the jump, you’ll see that. New Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier is reportedly…
Houston Street Food Culture
Why does the Eating Our Words blog focus on taco trucks, roasted corn stands and other such street food while ignoring the city’s fine dining scene, commentor Bill Chase wants to know. It’s a good question, and it brings up a larger issue that’s being discussed in American food circles…
Porkfat Candy: Homemade Cracklins
“You want cornbread or cracklins with that?” the lady behind the steam table asked. That’s a question I don’t think I’ve ever heard in a restaurant before. But the folks who run the soul food kitchen inside Discount Foods on Homestead and Laura Koppe are pretty proud of their cracklins…
Coogs’ Shot At A C-USA Title On The Line In Front Of A National Audience, Hostile Crowd
Tomorrow is the day the Cougars have pointed toward since they won the Armed Forces Bowl back on New Year’s Eve 2008. Tomorrow is the Conference USA Title Game, and all this season, the Cougar coaches and players have talked of playing in this game and winning the conference.And the…
10 Days of Giftmas: Fancy Foodstuffs
Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. Houston’s known for its restaurant scene, but there’s also a small but thriving community of local businesses that make and sell food instead of serving it. If…
Listology: The First Albums Black Math Experiment’s Jef With One F Ever Owned
Rocks Off wasn’t aware of this, but apparently the Press had to create a category for our annual Music Awards just to include the Black Math Experiment. The group, which combined punky New Wave pop with a lyrical sensibility best described as “extraterrestrial,” went on hiatus shortly after winning “Best…
Upcoming Events
Do you like burgers and beats? Of course you do. You’re a red-blooded Houstonian. It just so happens that Stanton’s City Bites (1420 Edwards) is hosting a Beats and Eats party on Saturday afternoon from noon to 7 p.m. Live music by BBC, Karina Nistal, Mr. Castillo and more will…
Snow, Or Threat Of It, Claims Art Victims (UPDATE)
The first of what is expected to be many performance cancellations by arts organizations this weekend has just come in: Dancepatheatre has canceled both the December 4 regular performance and December 6 rain-date performance of Letters You Wrote. A joint project between Dancepatheatre and the Foundation for Modern Music, the show had…
Can Rocks Off Withstand an Entire Hour of Sunny 99.1’s Holiday Programming?
Since Thanksgiving night, local dentist office-core radio station Sunny 99.1 FM has been pumping out non-stop Christmas tunes as they have been doing now for quite a few years. It’s a Houston phenomenon and an ominous bellwether for the coming holiday. You pretty much know when you can hear Vanessa…
The Office: Scott’s Soul-Crushing Tots
Yikes. I mean, I know The Office is dark and all, but: yikes. Last night’s episode, “Scott’s Tots,” was grueling. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that is was penned by the writing team of Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who also wrote the fourth season’s “Dinner…
Pac Man Is A Cougar, Maybe
UH occasionally gets a bad rap for having an apathetic student body, but on one magical day in the fall of 2008, the members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity decided to prove that some Cougars really do care about getting involved. And by getting involved, we mean dressing up…
Late Night Scene: Mama’s Cafe
After a night of bar-hopping in the Galleria area, I need a bite and another cocktail. My girlfriend thinks Mama’s Café (6019 Westheimer Rd., 713-266-8514) would hit the proverbial spot, and she also throws in that they have a full bar. I am sold. We head on over and grab…
Complete List of Texas’ 2010 Grammy Nominees
Rocks Off was pretty sure we missed a few Texas (or Texas-connected) artists in Thursday’s writeup of the 2010 Grammy nominees, and it turns out we were right. We don’t even remember scrolling past some of these categories over at Grammy.com, to be honest, but thanks to the Texas Music…
The Week in Photos
Each week, we choose our favorite reader-submitted photos from the Houston Press Flickr pool to feature here. Want to see your photo on Hair Balls? Then jump in to the pool. For more information about any of the photos, including subject and photographer, simply click on them…
You Buy We Fry at Hank’s
The two people in line in front of us at Hank’s Fish on Lockwood in the Fifth Ward were having a lover’s quarrel. She wanted the sea trout and he wanted the catfish, and neither showed any signs of yielding. “What’s wrong with catfish?” he kept saying. But I was…
DJ Hero: A Review
The geniuses that first let you rock ‘n’ roll with guitar legends in Guitar Hero decided to bring out a new instrument for gamers to party on. This time, Activision brought out the turntables for their newest title, DJ Hero. Available for the Playstations 2 & 3, Xbox 360, and…
Creepy, Inappropriate and Otherwise Weird Christmas Albums
Christmas is 22 days away, so you still have time to put in some online orders for delivery. And, coincidentally enough, we’re going to bet that whatever holiday album you’ve been playing for the past few years is starting to get a little stale. You can only enjoy the velvet…
$13 at Bar-B-Que Blues
Where: Bar-B-Que Blues, 5404 Almeda, 713-533-1230What $13 gets you: No beef but a lot of meat and a pink lemonade.On this beautiful day, before the big snow storm arrives, we thought we’d travel to the Third Ward for some lunch at Bar-B-Que Blues. We’d been to the restaurant a couple…
Last Clue For Our Harry Potter Trivia Test: The Non-“Dumbledore Is Gay” Edition
This is it — the last day before our freakin’ difficult Harry Potter trivia quiz which could get you a free DVD of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.Of course, the actual contest will be posted tomorrow at 6 p.m., at which time all of Houston will be blanketed by…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Rockabilly Country Soul of Big Al Downing
Maybe the most successful African-American country artist of the post-Charley Pride period was Big Al Downing. Talk about a guy who could blur the line between country and soul. An affable Oklahoman, Downing had a huge baritone voice that could melt hearts. Downing’s career began in rockabilly. After winning a…
Walking in a Gingerbread Wonderland
If it didn’t feel like Christmastime yet on Tuesday night with a slight chill in the air, the sight that greeted us as we walked into Voice put us right in the holiday mood: delicately and immaculately designed gingerbread houses all in a row, next to a glimmering Christmas tree…
Even Edgar Winter Can’t Get A Free Ride On The Light Rail Today
Light-rail riders, beware. The cops are out to getcha.Since early this morning, Metro police and light-rail employees have been stationed at each stop along the route checking to make sure everyone has a ticket and is not abusing the city’s well-loved, though probably often abused, honor system.In a perfect world,…
Tomorrow’s News Today!! From 20 Years Ago!!
What will the news broadcasts look like tomorrow, when Houston is faced with the utterly daunting prospect of a little snow? They will probably look a lot like these clips, from almost exactly 20 years ago.THRILL!! To reporters reporting that traffic seems to be moving smoothly!!MARVEL!!! At the “brave” people…
He Said She Said: Our Favorite Fictional Performers, Part 2
Why is that sometimes the fictional bands in movie and television are cooler than real bands? Sadly, some of He Said’s favorite bands don’t even have albums or videos to speak of, because they don’t even exist. The fun part is imagining how awesome their full-length records and tours would…
The 10 Best Places to Eat in Memorial
Although it’s undergoing some massive growth in the form of redevelopment and expansion at Memorial City Mall and the construction of the nearly finished CityCentre “town square” off Beltway 8, Memorial is still in many ways a sweetly sleepy suburb. But sleepy doesn’t necessarily mean boring. And suburb doesn’t mean…
Inquiring Minds: Lost In Space Festival Organizer Meghan Hendley
Texas has long been a hotbed of action in the psych/experimental genre, spawning notable bands like the 13th Floor Elevators, Bubble Puppy and locals The Red Krayola, The Moving Sidewalks, Fever Tree and The Children. However, the only known showcase in Houston history was 1969’s Day of Joy Festival, a…
ICE Chills Mambo Seafood
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided two outposts of the seven-restaurant Mambo Seafood chain yesterday and hauled off 33 suspected illegal aliens. According to KHOU, ICE also raided the company’s corporate office and hauled off boxes of documents, but refused to release details. More from Channel 11: An Immigration…
Urban Gardening: Deer Tongues and Kumquats
I had one of the best salads in recent memory yesterday. Urban gardening expert Jim Sherman cut a bunch of greens and herbs from one of his demonstration gardens in the Fifth Ward and filled up a plastic shopping bag for me. I took the fresh greens home and tossed…
Game Time: Your Texans Playoff Rooting Manifesto, 2009 Edition…Yeah, You Heard Me!!
The internet has been a wonderful invention. It’s allowed us to do all of our Christmas shopping in our underwear, go to college in our underwear, hell even go to work in our underwear. Basically, it’s allowed us to do a lot of things in our underwear that we never…
Wine of the Week – Patrick Storfer of Spec’s
Patrick Storfer has been working for Spec’s for ten years. Currently, he is a wine consultant at the Spec’s on Smith, but soon he will be the wine manager at the new Spec’s on Weslayan and Bissonnet. Storfer left Spec’s for a year to explore other options but quickly returned…
The H-Town Countdown, No. 8: Devin the Dude’s Just Tryin’ Ta Live
Roughly 84,000 rap albums that have been released in Houston since 1989. We’re counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Devin the Dude Just Tryin’ Ta Live (Rap-a-Lot/Asylum, 2002) In the comments…
Widow Of Drunk Driver Denied Insurance Benefits, Sues
Everyone knows that drinking and driving is a recipe for disaster. But if you’re injured while driving drunk, does that mean your injuries are intentionally self-inflicted?It does if you ask the global insurance giant Cigna, according to a recent lawsuit filed in Houston federal court.Deborah Firman, who lives about an…
Cutout Bin: Country Songs for Paramedics, Such As “Haul and Run”
EMS Country Express You Respond to Everyone But Me: Songs for the EMT (ETI Emergency Training, 1981) Nearly every occupation has its token LP. There are records for doctors and nurses, lawyers and ministers, cabbies and card sharks. But as far as Cutout Bin knows, this is the only record…
Kolache Crawl: Olde Towne
While the poppyseed kolaches at Olde Towne Kitchen on Memorial near Kirkwood are a little too sweet for my tastes, I love the meaty bacon and cheese klobasnek. The generous filling requires more dough and makes for a larger-size pastry — one is big enough for breakfast. Oddly, the skinnier…
Eleven Days of Giftmas: Cowboy Boots
Sick of corporate Christmas? Try shopping local. Hair Balls presents a 12-part series highlighting ideas for holiday gifts made and sold in Texas. Cowboy boots are a Texas tradition, and not that Hair Balls cares, but they’re apparently a huge trend for this winter. Houston’s got dozens of awesome places…
BARC’s E-Mails Detail Neglect, Mismanagement & A Change Agent’s Thin Skin
Internal e-mails among Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care’s new administrators and volunteers from September 20 to October 9 show a newly independent city agency plagued with miscommunication and continued animal negligence — the same problems BARC suffered under its former leadership.Hair Balls’ preliminary review of nearly 500 pages’ worth of e-mails obtained by former volunteer…
Beyonce Leads 2010 Grammy Field With 10 Nominations
Beyonce leads all nominees for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards, reaping the benefits of her smash double album I Am… Sasha Fierce and her prominent role on the soundtrack to last year’s Chess Records docudrama Cadillac Records, in which she appeared as an R&B diva from an earlier age, Etta…
Pop Rocks: Other TV Moms That Might Be Lesbians
I was all set to continue riding the Tiger Woods gravy train for one more day. I even had an idea for the Fallen One’s eventual triumphant comeback — not to give too much away, but the training sequence from Rocky III figured prominently.But then the Meredith Baxter story hit,…
Mushroom Burger Protest
It started with a simple Tweet. Aimee Woodall, owner of Black Sheep marketing/publicity firm, was a fan of the mushroom burger at Little Bigs, a slider stop in the Montrose area (2703 Montrose, 713-521-2447). She was disappointed when she stopped in at the eatery one day only to find the…
Lucky Luciano: Boss of Houston’s Latino Rap Family
Deep underground; way below the mainstream music land of Top 40 Billboard Charts and MTV countdowns thrives another existence entirely, made up of independent, Houston Latino hip-hop artists who didn’t get the memo. You know the one. It reads: “All aspiring artists must plead big record companies for the four…
Glee: Going to the Mattresses
Holy crap! Glee brought it hard this week, like thirtysomething EXTREME brought it. The drama was up, the tension was great, and everything was perfectly set for next week’s fall finale, the show’s final ep until April. “Mattress” opened in the teachers’ lounge, with Ken (hey look he’s back!) sitting…
Aeros Start To Get Back On Track A Bit
When last we heard from the Houston Aeros, they were a beat-up, short-handed squad struggling to score goals, win games, and send a complete roster of skaters onto the ice.Things change in a week.The Aeros spent the Thanksgiving holiday flitting about between Canada and New York, and despite the numerous…
Nielsen’s Satanic Mayo
Mayonnaise makes a poor substitute for bricks and mortar (too squishy), but Nielsen’s Delicatessen has built a business on the stuff since 1952. “I don’t think I’m allowed to know what goes in the mayo,” says deli manager Arthur Nen. Nielsen’s mayo is made in-house daily and is used in…
He Said She Said: Our 10 Favorite Fictional Bands
It’s a sad state of affairs when a parody band ends up being funnier/better/more entertaining that the original (we’re lookin’ at you, The Beatles). She Said started thinking of this list last week after making one in a million lifetime references to the fake band Blues Hammer from the movie…
It’s (Maybe) Gonna Snow In Houston!! Be Prepared!!
Forecasters are still telling us there’s a chance that it will snow in Houston tomorrow. We’ll believe it when we see it, but the theory is that sometime Friday afternoon we may get hit with anywhere from a trace to an inch of solid white precipitation.This, of course, would be…
Dale Watson
Rife with character-heavy narratives and big-sky imagery, country music has always been a ideal soundtrack for driving. We’re reminded of that on Dale Watson’s second album of highway songs, following 1998’s The Truckin’ Sessions. With lots of fiddle and a clear love of the road, Austin’s inveterate Watson elevates these…
Garrison Keillor
The holiday season is, of course, prime time for nostalgia for bygone days and homespun homilies. And if anyone has cornered the market on those areas, it’s Garrison Keillor. The Prairie Home Companion host and Lake Wobegon Days scribe has always had a merry musical bent, and he’ll team with…
Rock-afire Explosion
Among the many treasures (we use that word loosely) found on YouTube are clips of Showbiz Pizza’s entertaining animatronics, which were popular decades ago. In the restaurants, the robotic animals, mostly bears dressed in high school garb, were on timers, and every few minutes, they automatically whacked away at their…
The Sound of Music
Here it is — Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, otherwise known as your long-awaited break from Nutcrackers and Scrooges alike. Offered by Theatre Under the Stars, the show about the amazingly talented Von Trapp family (with the kids played by local actors) and their lovely and equally talented…
BOWFIRE: Holiday Heart Strings
The best fiddlers and violinists in gypsy, rock, classical, bluegrass, jazz and Celtic music have joined together to form the one-of-a-kind group BOWFIRE. Today the group performs Holiday Heart Strings, a Christmas/Hanukkah/winter concert filled with classic, much-loved tunes of the season such as “Silver Bells,” “The Christmas Song” and “Dreydl,…
Target Free First Sunday
December has arrived, and with it, lots of can’t-wait-for-Christmas kids with ants in their pants. To keep them amused (for the afternoon, at least), head over to the Target Free First Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for some hands-on family fun in an action-packed afternoon called Tell…
ARTBOX 2009
Bering & James confirms this event will proceed as scheduled today. It’s a numbers game at Bering & James’s ARTBOX 2009 exhibit: 200 artists, 300 works of art, each selling for $125. This year’s ARTBOX, the sixth incarnation of the annual event, is a return to the exhibit’s origins, with…
Dickens on the Strand
Dickens on the Strand organizers confirm that this event will proceed as scheduled. Some related events, however, have been canceled. Please check www.galvestonhistory.org for more information. We think the contestants in the Victorian Bed Races, part of this year’s Dickens on the Strand, rolling down Galveston’s Mechanic Street might make…
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The six Herdman kids are pretty awful – they have rude, crude and unruly down to a science in the kid’s stage comedy The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Much to everyone’s dismay, the rug-rat six-pack shows up at church one day (they find out snacks are handed out during Sunday…
Ree Drummond
Photographer/adventurer/cookbook author Ree Drummond proudly says, “I’m the wife of a rugged cowboy. I’m the mother of four spirited children. I have horse poop on my porch.” Alrightly then. We’re not sure how she trained the horse to poop on the porch (and we’re not even gonna guess about where…
Awakenings
The members of the Houston City Dance Company explore life’s turning points in Awakenings, a seven-piece program. Included is Symphony of Brotherhood, performed to a mix of violins and excerpts from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech. Lighter in tone is That’s Not My…
“Blast India”
Get a glimpse of contemporary India and its complexities, cultures and significant diaspora at G Gallery this month with “Blast India,” a showcase of the works of four Indian and Indian-American artists. Bari Kumar, Om Soorya, Laxman Aelay and Rahul Mitra use a range of styles to debunk stereotypes and…
Omar Angel Perez: “Studio and Stilett’O’s”
Omar Angel Perez confirms that this event will proceed as scheduled. Houston art fans recently saw Omar Angel Perez’s “Stillet’O’s” show at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Now Perez, a trained artist/self-taught furniture builder, is opening up his studio and home for an intimate, one-night exhibit, “Studio and Stilett’O’s,”…
A Decade of Dissent
Voices Breaking Boundaries celebrates ten years of persistent, aesthetically pleasing protest with A Decade of Dissent. “We’ve been very politically clear where we stand,” says VBB founder Sehba Sarwar. “Our shows…have been about immigration, women’s rights, border issues [and] war.” The local nonprofit began addressing these issues as a literary…
Inclined to Speak: A Dialogue with Four Arab American Poets
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston confirms that this event will proceed as scheduled. A quartet of distinct voices is featured in Inclined to Speak: A Dialogue with Four Arab American Poets. Kazim Ali, Elmaz Abinader, Hayan Charara and Eliot Khalil Wilson, each with a different style, form and subject,…
Absinthe: Revealed
Local absinthe enthusiast Damian Hevia has an unequivocal assessment of the spirit’s alleged power to cause hallucinations and dementia. “It’s total crap. But people believe these things; they’ll run away from a glass of absinthe,” he says. As one of the hosts of Absinthe: Revealed, he has invited master distiller…
Sue Grafton: U is for Undertow
Author Sue Grafton is doing a simple meet-and-greet during her visit to Murder by the Book (no reading or discussion). But chances are fans of the A-B-C mystery series featuring Kinsey Millhone will be happy enough with a handshake and an autograph from their favorite storyteller. Grafton is at the…
George Michael: Live in London
Don you now your gay apparel — with a screening of George Michael: Live in London. Mr. “I Want Your Sex” filmed the final two performances of his 2008 tour at Earls Court arena in London. The resulting documentary, screening today, includes Michael singing “Freedom,” “Faith” and “Careless Whisper.” While…
NANO Fiction Reading Series – Andrew Kozma and Amanda Auchter
The last installment of the NANO Fiction Reading Series of 2009 features poets Andrew Kozma and Amanda Auchter. With a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Houston, Kozma won the Zone 3 First Book Award for his 2007 collection of poetry, City of Regret. Auchter, who also has…
Poison Pen Reading Series
The Poison Pen Reading Series gets the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am treatment from the editors of Gulf Coast Magazine as each of the staffers from the University of Houston’s literary journal will dash through pieces of poetry, fiction or nonfiction and then pass the mike. “It’s rapid-fire: Every one of [our] ten editors…
Life Is Happy and Sad
Cutting-edge Catastrophic Theatre Artistic Director Jason Nodler created the play Life Is Happy and Sad as a prequel to his 2006 cult musical from Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Speeding Motorcycle. The play is based on the music and life of Daniel Johnston, Austin’s only manic-depressive musician ever to inspire an iPhone…
Guest of Cindy Sherman
Oddball gonzo video journalist Paul H.O., creator of the former cable show Gallery Beat, was a D-list artist in New York’s art world. When he met, wooed and became the boyfriend of legendary photographer Cindy Sherman — the undisputed A-list critic’s darling — poor Paul crashed and burned, and fell…
Jubilee of Dance
Now in its sixth year, the Houston Ballet’s Jubilee of Dance, a showcase of works new and old, has become a landmark event of the season. But today’s installment is a landmark of landmarks, as it will celebrate the company’s 40th birthday. Artistic Director Stanton Welch also turned 40 this…
Margo Veil
Jennifer Decker, artistic director of Mildred’s Umbrella, has made her theater into a place where all things experimental are welcome. So when Margo Veil, a play by the avant-garde writer Len Jenkins, appeared in her mailbox, she was intrigued. She says Jenkins “apparently had had a conversation with [writer] Mac…
Miracle on 34th Street
Texas Repertory Theatre confirms that today’s performance will proceed as scheduled. Valentine Davies’s Christmas favorite Miracle on 34th Street gets a remake by the Texas Repertory Theatre Company. The play, a crisp mix of comedy and cynicism, hope and magic, starts when a Macy’s Santa, coincidently named Kris Kringle, says…
Jack Ingram
One of the first of the Texas Music crowd to come to Nashville’s attention, Woodlands boy Jack Ingram is the most successful country singer out of Houston since Clint Black. Named the Academy of Country Music’s 2008 Best New Vocalist — after being in the business 16 years! — Ingram…
Blissing Out on Bingle
The milanesa at La Plaza Mexican Restaurant on Bingle is a thin, pounded steak covered with bread crumbs and fried. It’s served with a lemon wedge and a dollop of guacamole, along with some creamy refried beans and Spanish rice. Each bite crunches audibly while you chew. I squeezed the…
A Fertle Anniversary
Another annual Christmas pleasure in Houston comes courtesy of Radio Music Theatre. This year marks the 25th production of A Fertle Holiday. The crowd-pleasing skit-comedy show celebrates family and the difficulties of coming together for obligatory Christmas joy. Of course, the best thing about an RMT show is the cast…
Meet the Parent
Don’t be misled by the cheesy, generic poster for Kirk Jones’s Everybody’s Fine, in which a grinning Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale pose with Robert De Niro (airbrushed almost to the point of unrecognizable) for their characters’ family photo in front of a Christmas tree. It’s a marketing…
Credit Repair: Connecting the Dots
Based on interviews for this story, people who market debt-elimination services online are riddled with bad judgment. They have to be, because the only other possibility is that they are knowingly engaging in fraud, and some of these people are lawyers, so that just can’t be. Phil Manger, an attorney…
Good Housekeeping
Cleanliness may be next to godliness, but for the title character of the pitch-black Chilean comedy The Maid, it’s closer to an infernal torment. For more than 20 years, Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has worked as the hired help for an upper-class Santiago family, the Valdezes, whom she has served with…
Merry Pranksters
The anti-globalist performance guys who call themselves The Yes Men are masters of forging corporate rhetoric and media protocols. The most recent prank perpetrated by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (not their real names) involved an eco-warning simulacrum of the New York Post (headline: “WE’RE SCREWED”), pegged to last month’s…
The Spirit Returns
Since 1988, the Alley Theatre has gently reminded Houstonians of the true meaning of Christmas with a lovely rendition of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This year’s dark and moving production, adapted and originally put together years ago by Michael Wilson, stars Jeffrey Bean as the meanest dude in Christmas…
In the Pit
One of the hoariest clichés in a profession with all too many — namely, this one — is that “any press is good press.” That means artists should be willing to trade the odd less-than-favorable review, and occasionally even worse, for journalists placing their names in front of the kind…
Jail, Coffee, Drunk Driving and Insidious Racism?
Tales of Jail A lucky one: I just read your article in the Houston Press about Monte Killian [“Jail Misery,” by Randall Patterson, November 19]. I was a guest of the Harris County Jail from Friday, October 9, through Friday, October 23 of this year. I was there for my…
Noncombat Deaths: Another Casualty of War
In Sgt. John M. Russell’s chaotic Army world the morning of May 11, the enemy was closing in. For the previous several days at sprawling Camp Liberty outside Baghdad, the big Texan had talked of conspiracies, woken up from constant nightmares and broken down in tears, wishing someone would put…
Capsule Art Reviews: “A Room of Her Own”, “Tierney Malone: Third Ward Is My Harlem”
“A Room of Her Own” Group shows of women artists are exceptionally patronizing when the only connection between the works presented is that they were all made by someone with a vagina. That’s the organizing principle behind “A Room of Her Own” at McClain Gallery. The title is pretty awful…
KISS Off
When you’ve spent the better part of a decade writing about hard rock and heavy metal, people start to make certain assumptions. One of the most prevalent, misguided notions strangers seem to have about me is that I must love KISS, the rock band that has cultivated an army of…
More Mexican Slang and Healthcare Issues
Dear Mexican, I used to frequent a cantina in Chicago where half of the bar was Polack, the other half beaner. The Polacks would speak in their native tongue and either start or finish all of their sentences with the word kurwa. I understand this to mean “whore” in their…
Capsule Stage Reviews: The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Nerd,The Nutcracker, Panto Sleeping Beauty, The Story of My Life
The Last Night of Ballyhoo Remember the cameo brooch? Alfred Uhry’s family comedy is much like that piece of jewelry — old-fashioned, lovingly detailed, expertly crafted and just a tad musty. Coming from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of hit Driving Miss Daisy and the ultra-serious musical drama Parade, Uhry lets…
Not So Happily Ever After
Thirty-two-year-old Shundrekia Edwards and her two sons live in one bedroom of her parents’ southeast Houston house near Mykawa Road. All three sleep together in the bottom bunk bed; the top is filled with boxes of odds and ends and the stuffed animals that were meant for the boys’ sister,…
Hustlers Brass Band
Short days got you singing the blues? Are you hungry for some free red beans and rice and funk-drenched brass-band jams? Got five bucks? Then get on down to the Big Top every Tuesday through the end of the year for Mardi Gras on Main, the Hustlers Brass Band’s very…
Aventura
We’re not saying that “crossover” is a bad word. We’re just saying that it doesn’t apply to the Bronx-based bachata group Aventura, mostly because you can’t cross over to “here” when you were never really “there” in the first place. Like the group’s lead singer-songwriter, Anthony Santos, most of Aventura’s…
Worst Rapper Alive
The irony of the situation was just too great, we suppose. That’s why it didn’t happen — because it couldn’t happen. The universe wouldn’t let it. It sounded a little preposterous to begin with. At 2:43 p.m. Saturday, November 21, we received a text message from K-Rino that read, We…
ERNIE’S ON BANKS’S KRAPPY KICKER
With apologies to those who had legitimately rough childhoods, the Houston Oilers damn near scarred me for life as a kid. I’ve actually blocked out some of the more traumatic episodes from my memory. Grim hospital visits, dead pets, divorce — all that stuff is clear, but I couldn’t tell…
Lost in Space Fest
Houston has been known as a prime breeding ground for psychedelically inclined musicians ever since the late-’60s heyday of the 13th Floor Elevators, Fever Tree and the Red Krayola. Even so, it’s hard to imagine that storied scene being any trippier, more fertile or musically accomplished than the one we…
Credit Repair
If you own a credit card, listen up, and listen good: You’ve been bamboozled, hoodwinked and swindled. You’ve been duped, deluded and taken for a ride. Everything you think you know about money is wrong. You’ve been sold a bill of goods by a corrupt banking system pulling the strings…
Slackfest ’09
Like metal, ska is a genre that just refuses to die. The Jamaican-born music began cross-pollinating island rhythms with the sounds of American jazz, R&B and soul in the early 1960s, eventually giving rise to reggae, and averages at least one revival every decade via groups like the Specials, English…
Andalucia Tapas and Taverna
Adding to the list of restaurants opening in the Houston Pavilions is Youssef Nafaa’s Andalucia Tapas and Taverna (1201 San Jacinto, 832-319- 6673). Nafaa is the owner of the Mia Bella restaurants as well as Saffron, the city’s only Moroccan restaurant, and Coco’s Crêperie. “Since I sold Mi Luna in…
Jay Reatard
After playing in every band on every label on every song in the Nashville music scene (a fuzzed-out execution showcased on 2008’s Matador Records singles comp), 2009’s Watch Me Fall acknowledges Jay Reatard’s death wish with overblown, poppy drama in two-minute increments. Though recent documentary Waiting for Something worked hard…
The Seven Rings of Heaven
It’s hard to imagine onion rings sending people into a feeding frenzy, but that’s what happened recently at Two Saints (12460 Memorial, 713-465-8967) when the Parmesan Truffled Onion Rings ($9) hit the table. The dish consists of seven onion rings — sweet Texas 1015s cut at least one inch thick,…
